With a win over Johnson already on his resume, one might wonder if Brad Pickett would consider dropping from bantamweight to make a run at the title Johnson won this past week at UFC 152 in Toronto.

But Pickett has no plans to make that drop, even though he knows he could do it.

“A lot of people ask if I can drop down a weight. But I fought at ’55, ’45 and now ’35,” Pickett on Wednesday told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “I could make the weight – of course I could. But it would be detrimental to me, I think. It’s a lot of weight. I could do it, but I’d have to lose muscle.

“I always explain to people that elephants aren’t the king of the jungle. You don’t have to be the biggest guy in your weight class. And I’m not a small bantamweight, to be honest.”

Instead, Pickett (21-6 MMA, 1-1 UFC) will concentrate on a run in the bantamweight division, and he hopes to get a streak going starting Saturday on the main card of UFC on FUEL TV 5 in Nottingham, England. Pickett takes on Yves Jabouin (16-7 MMA, 3-1 UFC) in front of the English faithful.

UFC on FUEL TV 5 takes place at the Capital FM Arena in Nottingham with a main event between heavyweights Stefan Struve and Stipe Miocic.

After a 3-1 stint in the WEC, Pickett dropped his UFC debut, also in his native England, with a submission loss to interim bantamweight champion Renan Barao nearly a year ago at UFC 138. But a submission win over Damacio Page in April got him back on track.

Both bouts earned him “Fight of the Night” bonus awards, giving him four bonus checks in his six fights under the Zuffa banner. His kill-or-be-killed style has earned consistent praise from UFC President Dana White, which Picket appreciates – cautiously.

“Being in exciting fights is one thing, but you’ve still got to keep winning,” Pickett said. “Two things: You don’t want to be a guy who wins every fight boringly, because as soon as you lose, you’re probably going to get cut. And you don’t want to be in an exciting fight every fight and lose, because you’ll only be in the job for a certain amount of time. You can lose five in a row but still have exciting fights, and they still can’t keep you. You need to mix both up.

“Winning and being in exciting fights is the way to go forward, and that’s what I try to do.”

Pickett said he traditionally has put a lot of pressure on himself to bring exciting fights as well as win, and it perhaps has been detrimental. But for his return to England, the American Top Team-based fighter has done his best to rid himself of the pressures of past fights and take a more holistic approach to his fight game.

“I’m experienced with it now,” Pickett said. “The last time, when I fought in Birmingham, there was al little bit more of a, ‘Whoa!’ I had been out for a long time – I had a long injury, and then flying back to England, being co-main event, my debut in the UFC. I’d like to say the occasion got to me, but it didn’t, actually. I actually felt really comfortable and I felt really, maybe overconfident. And maybe that’s paid dividends in a different way, where this time it feels a little bit different. I’m more experienced through it and I’m ready for Saturday.

“Normally, I always put so much pressure on myself to go out there and win. This time, I’m just going to go out there and enjoy myself, fight the best that I can be and if that brings a win, it brings a win.

The Latest

In this week’s Trading Shots, Danny Downes and Ben Fowlkes look at Ronda Rousey’s 34-second victory over Bethe Correia at UFC 190 and try to put it into terms that capture the moment without getting swept away by it.

A total of 26 fighters got their chance to shine on Saturday as part of UFC 190 at Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena. Now that UFC 190 is in the books, it’s time to commence MMAjunkie’s “Three Stars” ceremony.

The man known for cranking submissions to the point of injury added eye-gouging to his repertoire. But is the controversy of Rousimar Palhares too essential to his bizarre, awful appeal for his employers to take any meaningful action against him?